To implement successfully SESAR, the European ATM community needs regular and timely plans and reports on what has been achieved and what still needs to be done.

For this, the 2016 European ATM Master Plan (MP) Level 3 Implementation Report plays an essential role. It consolidates the implementation progress reports produced by individual stakeholders on the implementation of commonly agreed actions which ECAC States have to take in the SESAR context, and gives an indication of what actions (called “Implementation Objectives”) need to be taken.

The 2016 MP Level 3 Implementation Report paints a generally positive picture of progress achieved at ECAC level. In R&D terms, 2016 was a transition between SESAR 1 and SESAR 2020. In implementation terms, last year also marked a transition between finishing the implementation of pre-SESAR functionalities, and shifting the focus to implementing the (Pilot) Common Project (P)CP and other SESAR 1 functionalities. There are still some important pre-SESAR or baseline elements that are not fully implemented at ECAC level but, on average, implementation of the SESAR Baseline has reached almost 70% of completion throughout ECAC area. According to data reported through LSSIP, (P)CP and SESAR 1 implementation is picking up speed, recording an average completion rate of 29% in ECAC States, which leads us to expect that the SESAR Baseline will be fully implemented by the end of 2019.

That said, around 30% of Level 3 Implementation Objectives have either exceeded their initially planned completion dates, or are planned to be delayed. These Implementation Objectives will be closely followed by the appropriate authorities, and clear mitigation measures will be put in place, particularly for those that have been identified as important prerequisites or enablers for (P)CP (without prejudice to the role of the SESAR Deployment Manager). If this does not happen, there is a genuine risk that major SESAR functionalities will be delayed for implementation.

All these risks have been fed into the risk chapter of this Implementation Plan, and will subsequently be followed up at local level through the LSSIP documents.

Read the 2016 MP Level 3 Implementation Report here to find out what the ATM stakeholders have achieved in 2016, the progress made in implementing SESAR functionalities, and the measures taken to optimise the European ATM system. The Report answers in detail these questions, as well as indicating what still needs to be done in terms of implementation plans for the near future. Throughout the document, detailed implementation “success stories” bring to life the work undertaken successfully in 2016 across the ECAC area.